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Soup for Sluts

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via www.cutesexyfunnyawful.com

Speaks for itself really...

Merlin season 4 world premiere Q&A and cast pics

Before I go on, there will be no details from the actual episode shown tonight at the BFI except to say it was the first of a two-parter and ended, naturally, on a cliffhanger. We promised to 'keep the magic secret' so you'll just have to enjoy the anticipation a little longer.

So this is the Q&A - as much as I could scribble down and remember that is. From the cast Angel Coulby, Katie McGrath and Colin Morgan all appeared after the screening (see pic right, more at end of post). They had arrived only half an hour before the screening was due to start because of traffic problems and were whisked straight into press briefings.

Bradley was due to attend but is ill and Colin in fact attended in his place having been filming today. Anthony Head is filming in the US and has already shot all his scenes and Richard Wilson was in Cardiff filming but sent a filmed message saying 'hello' and promising to send a few of the minor character along to see us. Such a wag.

They were still finishing the first episode at 2.30pm this afternoon so it was literally the first time the cast and most of the crew had seen it.

Q&A

There is more green screen/CGI work this series which the producers believe gives the series more of an epic feel. Katie apparently spends most of her filming time in a green box and Colin says it takes a lot of imagination as an actor.

Katie says she couldn't play Morgana if she didn't love her and agree with everything she does.

"You do see the vulnerable side to her at the beginning. I didn't want her to be just a boo-hiss villain. Yes she might be a bit misguided!

"With Morgana there isn't anything that would make her happy, it's about revenge. She's hurting and wants revenge"

Series has got darker and Merlin isn't the naive character he was at the beginning - a bit of suspense is what the fantasy genre trades on.

Q What is the average day like for an actor on Merlin

Trafalgar Square before the tourists descend

 

First glimpse of BBC's Sherlock series 2

I know we aren't going to get to see it properly until next year but can I just have a tiny moment to squee with excitement about this teeny Sherlock glimpse?

 

Photo from the archive - very silly restaurant name

Only in France...well maybe not but this one was in France

2012 Olympics women's beach volleyball? Been there done that...

Thought I get in before the crowds. And it was a wise choice because the venue at the Horse Guards Parade is going to have a crowd capacity that is two thirds bigger than when I went last week for the test event.

And can I just say that if they don't have male dancers in hot pants between the games for the men's beach volleyball then that is just sexist in my book. Scantily clad girls dancing for the women's beach volleyball, scantily clad men for the men's beach volleyball is all I'm saying. (And no I'm not joking they do have such entertainment, see the photo below if you don't believe me.)

But first here are the ladies in action it was Mexico vs China...

 

 

A goodbye to Camelot and what I'll miss

When Camelot started a few weeks back the first episode was right up my street and got me immediately thinking about the DVD release. But as the series has worn on it has, I'm afraid, worn a bit thin on plot.

It's as if the writers have reserved the strongest threads for the series long storylines while neglecting the individual episodes. Early on one episode was described as Arthur goes to find a sword and that is pretty much what he did. Not compelling viewing.

I've stuck with it though in the hope that it would fulfil its early promise (the picture above is from the scene when Arthur's mother is murdered in front of him and one that most sticks in my mind) and while there have been some wonderful bits with Eva Green as Morgan there has been little else to subsequently get excited about.

The story line about Guinevere sleeping with Arthur on the eve of her wedding to someone else has just been a bit too slow to burn. Arthur seems to swing from vulnerable young man to rousing speech giver and leader of men a little too unconvincingly. And what, what, what is Joseph Fiennes supposed to be doing as Merlin? I can think of two interesting things the character has done during the whole series the rest of the time he seems to hide away and be moody.

I'm watching Teen Wolf at the moment - bit of a guilty pleasure - but it is far more compelling and has, surprisingly, far more depth, especially considering I'm not really the target audience.

Based on what the first series of Camelot has offered it isn't really a surprise that a second series hasn't been commissioned, although I'm sure it was probably more down to money.  It is a shame because the cast and the first episode had so much going for it.

The one really good thing to come out of it though is the soundtrack - it's rarely been off my work playlist since I bought it. Shame the programme wasn't quite a match. Right off to say my farewell proper with the final episode.

Download 01 Camelot Main Titles

 

 

 

One for the Colin Morgan/Merlin fans

Little Col answers lots of nerdy questions about his character and the Merlin story - oh and chooses Dexter as the series he'd most like to cameo in.

  

Colin Morgan talks Merlin series 4 and fav bits of the Arthurian legend

Getting stupidly excited about the new series of Merlin. It went through a slight lull in the second series but really started to pick up pace again in series 3.

Oh and did I mention I saw Colin at the theatre with Richard Wilson a couple of weeks back....

 

Art and artists on the South Bank, London

Finally a fully-formed trailer for The Hour and its broadcast date

We've been teased with snippets and photo's as part of the BBC's summer drama promotions but a full-blown trailer for The Hour appeared this week to coincide with the announcement that it is to begin airing the week beginning July 16.

It seems like such a long time ago that I saw a preview of the first episode but I'm not sure the trailer really does it justice. The opening clip with Ben Whishaw looking at the camera is how the episode starts and having seen it on a big screen, I'll never erase that image from my mind.

Of course the cast are in full promotion mode and interviews are starting to appear. The Guardian published an interview with Mr W this week in which he is candid about his dislike of interviews and how his family worry about him. What a delicate soul he is.

 

Keeping calm and....

Why I don't like eating al fresco in London

The last 10 years or so has seen an explosion of street dining in London as restaurants and cafe tables spill out onto the pavement.

It seems like a nice idea sitting outside in fine weather while enjoying a coffee or lunch and watching the world go by. Except this is London so the world going by can be quite eclectic and include tramps and alchies who you don't really want coughing over you at any time let alone when you are eating.

And that's why I don't sit outside, well not normally anyway. Today, a gloriously hot and sunny day, I'd spent a couple of hours in the cold, air-conditioned dark of the Curzon cinema so got lured by the warmth and brightness of the pavement tables outside Whole Foods.

Half way through a very pleasant lunch, an old man stumbled by and as he got to the empty table next to mine picked up the remnants of its last occupants food and started to sort through it. What followed was a combination of shoving various bits in his mouth and either swallowing them or chewing them a few times and spitting them out if they didn't quite suit his palate. The rest he examined closely before discarding in a manor that implied the morsel had caused some sort of offence. He wasn't a broccoli man.

New magnet for the filing cabinet

I call this one: Harry Potter and the London Eye

My new TV love: Camelot and the cast interview

It's just so me...shame it's on Channel 4 with its atmosphere destroying ads every five minutes.

Anyway he's a nice long interview with the cast.

 

Why I love living in London or how to get yourself noticed

Because after a bit of shopping, then a lovely lunch and film with a friend you walk out into the sunshine on a June Saturday teatime to see hoards of people cycling naked toward Trafalgar Square and The Mall.

More people exercising there democratic right in this manor please - I bet there'd be less trouble. (And no I didn't catch what it was they were demonstrating about.

PS Found out what the naked cycling demo was all about

Even the stewards were in the buff and what a lovely view of the er...National Gallery

Postcard from my life: Weeks 18 & 19 or growing stuff

Ever since a former neighbour put spade into the grass in the communal garden of our block of flats and started growing some flowers and some veg, I've wanted to have a go myself. I was brought up on home-grown veg, some of my fondest childhood memories is helping out in the garden, digging up potatoes, picking broad beans or stringing runner beans ready to be blanched for the freezer.

But life excuses have got in the way and I thought I'd left it too late, once again to plant anything this season until a friend who has an allotment told me different. Bouyed by a growing-veggies-for-simpletons type book and a few packets of easy to grow seeds I set about with my similarly-minded neighbour Franesca to have a go at growing stuff.

We dug a very small border using a trowel, which is all the equipment we had on that first gardening session, mixing some compost in to the barren, grey looking earth. Then with our seeds in hand we divided up our modest plot into sections planting, in a rather slap-dash fashion, various herbs, radishes and peas. The idea being if it grows great, if not then we haven't wasted much time and money.

So what did you do at work today dear...

Postcard from my life: Week 18 or the last book I'll ever read...

Probably. It's out with the old and in with the new. Anthony Horowitz's Scorpia Rising, the last in the Alex Rider series may be the last novel I read in mulched tree format as I am now the proud owner of a Kindle.

I've been thinking of getting one for a while. Mainly because I like to have a book with me to read when I'm out and about as I never know when I might have 10 minutes spare. And, when I'm out and about I tend to do quite a bit of walking and bulky books just do my back/shoulder in. (There is also the storage issue when you have a one bed flat).

For a while the size of the book has been a big factor in whether I'll read it or not. Hardbacks were definitely out. But with the Kindle it is always the same size. It is slim and light and I can carry more than one book with me, 3,500 in fact (and a dictionary).

It has taken a little getting used to. I hadn't realised that I'd got into the habit of starting to lift the page to turn it as I was still finishing the last sentence or two and of course you can't do that on the Kindle, you start pressing the arrow to move on and bang you are there so there was a bit of back and forth in the beginning.

I'm not sure if this is the funniest WC sign I've ever seen…

…but it's certainly the most graphic.

via adam.tinworth.org

Ben Whishaw turns acid tongue in The Hour

Just back from my first trip to BAFTA (an experience in itself) to see a preview screening of the first episode of the BBC's new drama serial The Hour.

It's scheduled for broadcast (in the UK anyway) some time in June, set in a 1950's news room as a new daily news programme is launched. And boy are we in for a treat if this first of what will be six episodes is anything to go by.

The script is razor sharp, it is multi-layered and fast-paced. The opening shot is of Ben Whishaw's journalist Freddie talking, with great conviction, directly to the camera about his almost certainly controversial new ideas. As the camera pans around you realise he is rehearsing a speech, talking to himself in the mirror, in the gents.

And so we are launched into the conflicted world of 1950s television news. News which represents a culture that is clinging on to pre-war traditions, governed by cold-war fear and challenged by new thinking and the changing role of women. 

ANGRY BIRDS theme!!! covered by Pomplamoose

via www.youtube.com

via www.roaming-originals.org

*Rev Stan has just left to get her iPhone to play Angry Birds*

Postcard from my life: Week 17 or The Birthday

Wow I think it is going to take me a week to recover from this. Spent my 4oth birthday doing this:

And this:

Etc. The one above is Oblivion and it scared the living day lights out of me. I was petrified, unlike any other ride I went on, whole new streams of expletives were invented. It pauses at the top of a 150ft drops - dangling you over the edge before plunging down into a big, black hole. My hands are sweating just writing about it.

Song 1: Probably my all time favourite song

Well here we are, the fortieth song. It's been great fun - a real trip down memory lane and good rummage around into the far corners of the record collection.

I was going to put a birthday related song today but the one I wanted I couldn't find anywhere mainly because I can't remember who it's by or what it's called! But I always knew I'd include this one and the further through the list I got the more I knew it had to be one of the final two.

It is difficult to describe quite why I like this song so much and why it is probably my all time favourite. Although it is being challenged all the time and most recently by a song by the same band.

Not surprisingly I find it beautiful. It is a rich, multi-layered song but also contradictory. It took me a while to work out what it was about and I'm still not 100% sure. It actually seems very bitter, twisted and resentful when you read the lyrics. And I like that it sounds the way it does when it could have been very angry sounding.

It is by one of my favourite bands: Radiohead. They are a band that have evolved and some of the evolutions I haven't always liked but I always come back to them. Their music is complex, emotive and evocative. I've liked them from the very start back in their days of raw guitar rock and although I still love their early work and think it's some of their best, I also love what they've become.

The song is Nude from In Rainbows which is probably the album I listen to most. It also reminds me of my brother because he said he listened to it a lot when our Dad died and it made him cry.

Download 03 Nude

Song 2: The beautiful song with the claim to fame connection

This is probably the second most beautiful song in my music library. It was one of those rare songs that I loved from about 20 seconds in of the first play. I think I actually burst into tears.

Partly because I can identify with a lot of sentiment expressed and because it feels as if it has been written with heartfelt honesty from genuine experience. If it hasn't then all the more genius.

But it also has the most beautiful, haunting piece of violin that lingers long after the song has finished.

And the claim to fame comes from the fact that one of the band members - Urby - used to work for the same company as me. I didn't know him any more than a smile of acknowledgement when our paths crossed in the kitchen or elsewhere in the office.

He was one of those people that everyone knew of mainly because he always looked dishevelled, wore a trilby and he played in a band. He always had a cheery smile on his face probably because at night while we were parked in front of the telly with our tea on our lap he was off playing gigs.

His dishevelled look, I found out, was often because he got home very late having had to travel far and wide to play. Good for him I say. The hard graft has certainly paid off as he eventually took a gamble and jacked-in the day job to work on the band - Noah and the Whale - full time.

And the song? It's The First Days of Spring and it still pricks tears in my eyes when I hear it.

Download 01 The First Days Of Spring

Song 3: the one that works on so many levels

Gosh it's getting difficult now to pin down the last three songs. I'm getting the feeling this won't be the last time I do something like this...

Anyway, this song is perfect in so many ways. It comes from another soundtrack: Baz Luhrman's Romeo + Juliet which is just such a brilliantly vibrant and modern adaptation of Shakespeare's classic play. The genius is making it accessible to a young, contemporary audience while retaining the essence of the classic text.

And what helped was the soundtrack which has so many superb tracks on it but this one which is the essence of the film's style combining choral with a dance beat. Atmospheric, contemporary and a toe-tapper.

It's Quindon Tarver's cover of When Dove's Cry:

Download 17 When Doves Cry

Song 4: The one that got me through

... that really tough time although it was more to convince me, than how I actually felt. It's Florence and the Machine's Dog Days Are Over. Love Florence and the Machine, she is a great singer and live performer.

Download 01 Dog Days Are Over

Song 5: The one you might not expect

Have bared my music soul over the last few weeks but there are still some dark corners left to explore. There are a couple of artists that may raise an eyebrow in surprise, I may only write about one - it is getting tough to choose as I get closer to my last song.

This artist I discovered through a film and bought a best of album on a bit of a whim when I got home. But I love her. Her music is what I listen to on a sunny Sunday morning when I'm lazing on the sofa writing on my lap top with a pot of tea on the go. It has the sound of old black and white romance movies.

She doesn't even sing in my own language (and I only know a handful of words of her native tongue) which should give you a clue. Not guessed yet? Oh OK, it's Edith Piaf. Surprised?

Download 1-13 Hymne à l'amour

PS I prefer La Vie on Rose in sung in French rather than the English version she does. It just doesn't sound the same in English but I haven't chosen that as my song as it's too obvious as it Non je ne regrette rien. But I do love both songs.

Postcard from my life: Weeks 15 & 16 or the sun and celebs

Been a bit neglectful hence the two in one to catch up but I'm using the bank holidays as an excuse.  Two consecutive four-day weekends coupled with lovely sunny weather and I've been out and about, rather a lot which usually means writing posts for other blogs, particularly as there has been a good dose of celeb influence to add to the excitement.

So how to sum up the past two weeks. Well there has been lots of sun - April has been the warmest and driest since records began apparently:

Song 6: The one that annoyed my friends at Uni

While we on the subject of me annoying people with songs I thought I might as well throw this cheesy little one in. It is Nothing Compares 2 U by Sinead O'Connor which I loved. It's not playing it a lot that annoyed my friends at Uni, it was the fact that I used to sing it to myself, all the time. And I'm not a great singer.

It became known as 'that bloody song'.

I do, still, really like it. I think Sinead O'Connor has an amazingly pure voice and at the time I remember liking the fact that she cut off her hair so being long-haired and beautiful couldn't be used by the record company as a marketing ploy.

To me she represented a beautiful, talented and a strong woman who was going to do things her way. She is also a singer who can portray great emotion and feeling in her voice. It's a cover version but you'd think she experienced everything she sings about.

It's not my favourite song of hers, that is Troy, which is probably up their in my top 10 favourite songs of all time.

Sinead O'Connor - Nothing Compares 2 U by MovieFanQS 

Song 7: The one the annoyed the hell out of my Dad

Picture the scene: a small council house, badly built, with thin walls and creaky floorboards. A teenage girl, in her bedroom which is above the living room, playing the same song over and over and over again, while working out her own little dance routine to said song.

I think my Dad's comment was when I eventually gave up and came downstairs was: "Now I like that song but after the hundreth time!!!!"

And the song? It was Take My Breath Away by Berlin because we were all into Top Gun back then.

Just listen, you can imagine what it sounded like through the ceiling. (Still know all the words but fortunately can't remember my dance routine.)

Download 2-04 Take My Breath Away (Love Theme From _Top Gun_)

 

Song 8: The second band I saw live, the jacket and the song that reminds me of Jen

Having started out quite promisingly seeing The Cult, some might think that I let myself down a bit with my next outing to see some live music but I'm still proud that I went to see INXS on their Kick tour. I actually saw them twice on the same tour, first at the De Montfort Hall in Leicester then again at the Birmingham NEC - they must have added the dates at bigger venues later as a response to demand.

At the NEC it was all seating and we were on the front row of a block quite far back so I couldn't actually see anything, for some inexplicable reason a security guard asked if Rose and I would like to go nearer the front. Er...tricky one that. We had to leave Rose's husband and brother in law behind but we were taken right to the front so we had an amazing view.

At the end of the gig they opened a barrier and let a bunch of people go back stage but we couldn't really go skipping off to meet the band with the boys waiting for us at the back. Besides as a 15/16 year-old I was far too shy to do something like that anyway.

I'd liked INXS for a while, again another band I got into before they made it big in the UK and already had a couple of their albums before they released Kick. My brother, who is now a graphic designer painted the logo from the Kick album on the back of denim jacket. It was actually my sister's jacket that she'd lent me, it became a more permanent addition to my wardrobe after that.

The song I've chosen always reminds me of my bezzie mate Jen as it's one we always danced to at Sixth Form Socials. I guarantee that if Jen was here now, and it was playing, we'd both be dancing.

New Sensation

Songs 10 & 9: The theatre connection

Anyone who's seen my other blog will know I go to the theatre a lot. They might have also surmised that I don't like musicals at all but that doesn't mean that Theatre hasn't influenced my music collection.

There is a particular song and a particular artist that falls into this category.

First up is the song. It's Islands by The XX. It was played briefly during a scene in Hamlet at the National Theatre last year - Ophelia is listening to it when Laertes comes to warn her off getting involved with Hamlet - which I loved so much I went to see it twice.

I didn't know who the song was by when I saw the play but when I was given a copy of The XX's album a few months later it immediately sounded familiar. It took a while to place it, well actually someone pointed it out but now that scene and the song are intrinsically linked.

Download 04 Islands

The second, is an artist who've I written about before. He's also an actor and I saw him in a play in which he sang a song. I discovered he is also a singer/song writer after googling him when I got home, listened to some samples, loved them and the rest is history. It's Johnny Flynn and this is called The Wrote & The Writ:

Download 02 The Wrote & The Writ

Song 11: The one that reminds me of my 19th birthday

My 19th birthday was my first away from home as I was at University. My birthday's up until that point had been quite sober affairs mainly owing to the fact that I went for quality rather than quantity when it came to friends and most of them lived outside my hometown and therefore had to drive.

So once I got to University in the big city, got a bigger group of friends, with bus as the transport there was no way it was going to be sober.  We did a lot of clubbing in that first year at Uni. Our student bar was tiny (rebuilt and extended for my second year) so we often headed into town.

As it was my birthday we decided to go to a slightly glitzier club (think footballer wives rather than chic). And as this was my favourite song at the time my friends got the DJ to play it for me with a dedication at which point we tore up the dance floor. Well we thought we did anyway.

It's Killer by Seal and I still love it.

Download 04 Killer

The big 50 question meme

 

Haven't done one of these for a while but an old Vox neighbour posted this and I love them so here goes:

WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE.

Yes there was an American family down the road who had a daughter with the same name. My parents had great imagination when it came to names (see the Sarcasm question). And no Stan isn't my real name but I'm not telling, unless you know me.

WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED.

Yesterday watching an episode of Merlin. I'm a sap, I cry at everything.

DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING

No. I was banned from using biro's at school because my handwriting was so scruffy. Fountain pens and ink cartridges for me. Now I use inky roller-ball pens or fibre-tips. Hate biros.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE LUNCH MEAT

Whatever I'm in the mood for but usually chicken because that's what I've got in the freezer.

Songs 13 & 12: The blues and my Dad

I don't have nearly enough blues in my record collection considering how much I love it.

My Dad introduced me to the blues. He was into Howlin' Wolf, John Lee Hooker and the like but what re-ignited my love of the genre was my discovery Sea Sick Steve. His music harks back to the classics and what I particularly like  is that you can actually hear that he is playing a real instrument and not only that that his guitar has just as much a story to tell as he does. He's an ex-hobo you see and the sound is as beat up and down on it's luck as I'm sure he once was. Which is as it should be.

Shame my Dad will never get to hear Sea Sick Steve.

I've chosen the John Lee Hooker song I'm in the Mood to accompany Sea Sick Steve's The Dead Song so you can get an idea of what I mean.

 

 

Download 1-03 I'm In The Mood

 

Download 10 The Dead Song

 

 

Songs 15 & 14: My other favourite band and favourite female vocalist

I don't mind heavy metal or heavy rock if there is a good, strong vocalist behind it. I remember my brother listening to thrash metal in which all the instruments blurred into an only vaguely tuneful sludge over which someone barked into a microphone. Not for me although I can appreciate the rush the volume of it live gives.

My second favourite band: Skunk Anansie is a case in point. Like most rock they sound heavier live but through it all comes Skin's vocals. She is a formidable looking woman who's soft girly voice speaking inbetween track belies the sound that comes out when she sings. She's a great physical performer too.

Skunk Anansie and Skin (when she went solo for spell) are probably the band/artist I've seen most live. They never reached the height of fame that took them beyond favoured venues such as the Brixton Academy. Good for me, not so good for them.

They are my other favourite band (after Muse) and Skin is my favourite female vocalist for her unique sound, always being pitch perfect and having the light and shade to her voice that brings depth to each song even when she is jumping around on stage.

This is probably one of the most well known Skunk Anansie songs:

Weak

She went a lot softer for her first solo album and I loved seeing that side to her:

Don't Let Me Down

 

Good Friday sunshine in London

London had a distinct holiday feel to it today. No surprise because it's Good Friday but that combined with the unseasonably warm sunshine and the Royal Wedding being just a week away gave the city an extra air of festive spirit.

 

Heritage humour

London's newest blue plaque spotted in Golden Square, Soho, London

Song 16: The first band I saw live

Have always been quite proud that the first band I saw live was The Cult. No embarrassing kiddy pop for me, oh no, straight into greasy-haired, sweaty goth-rock.

Of course it was my brother Derren that got me into them and friends of my parents Mick and Rose that took us. Mick worked with my Dad but was a lot younger than him and had quite a cool taste in music. If it hadn't have been for Mick and Rose, goodness know who would have been my first gig and it probably wouldn't have happened until I was much older.

Derren and I were 14 when we went to see them at the De Montfort Hall in Leicester. How cool did we feel at school the next day? I dreamed of having a Russian fur hat like lead singer Ian Astbury.

I think my parents probably got a bit worried by my love of  The Cult when I bought the huuuuge posters you used to only be able to buy outside gig venues and plastered all over my bedroom walls. They were so big they were virtually wall paper and of course they were mainly black or black and red. Not quite the look my parents were hoping for in their youngest daughters bedroom.

Despite my love of The Cult I didn't go down the goth route so my parents needn't have worried. But the seeds to my love of guitar music were planted.

I've chosen the obvious song She Sells Sanctuary because it just rocks and is a head-nodder and no mistake (and I know all the words).

She Sells Sanctuary

 

Song 17: The band I feel embarrassed about liking but shouldn't

Maybe it's because the vast majority of my record collection, for a long time, was guitar heavy and most of the DJs on the radio stations I listen to take the piss out of them but I've always felt guilty about liking Coldplay. And I shouldn't because they write some beautiful, catchy and sometimes quite passionate songs.

It's an obvious choice but this remains one of my favourite tracks by them. It's probably the only song that I want to do air piano to:

Clocks

 

Song 18: One from the first CD I bought

It was my first summer living in London after graduating, I finally had a permanent job with a company that employed people under the age of 30. I was making my independent way in the world and so I decided to bin the ghetto-blaster with fancy, pop-out, back-to-back double tape deck (one deck was broken) in favour of a proper faux-stack stereo with radio, double tape and, yes, my first ever CD player.

So what was the first CD I bought? Bjork's Debut. She is another unique sounding vocalist and a unique artist although I confess that this is the only record of hers I own. It's got some great tracks on it but I particularly like this one - Venus As a Boy - it's on one of my favourite iPod playlists.

Download 03 Venus As A Boy

Song 19: The one that reminds me of my brother and sister

No 70s childhood is complete without a bit of Abba. They are the archetypal 70s pop band and my sister was a fan but then so was my brother Derren, yes he of Nirvana stage-diving fame. Who'd have thought it?

It's not just that Abba reminds me of my sister singing along to their records in our bedroom or that they are a great sing along band but also because they intrigue me. Beneath the frothy but ridiculously catchy pop tunes there are some very dark lyrics.

Towards the later years of their recording career the two marriages in the band were collapsing and it spawned some beautifully sad songs (you might be getting the impression by now that I like sad songs and I do).

This song, The Winner Takes It All, is probably the most obvious but the next time to you listen to Abba Gold (I know you have it in your collection) remember the heart break and bitterness between the band members, it will add a new depth. Trust me.

The Winer Takes It All

 

 

Songs 21 & 20: the reality TV ones

I've written about my love of Will Young before and how he's the only reality TV produced singer I actually voted for so I couldn't not include him some on this list. I love the unique tone of his voice and long may he continue recording:

 

Download 03 All Time Love

 

This second song is also from a reality TV show and for the same reason as Will in that I just love the unique tone to her voice and was smitten by it from the outset. It's Alex Parks from the BBC's Fame Academy. Sadly she seems to have disappeared off the face of the recording earth. Not a surprise really as she seem extremely ill at ease with the attention and fame winning the show inevitably brought.

Even though I love her original recordings, some of the covers she did on the show and which subsequently ended up on her first album were outstanding so I'm choosing her version of Beautiful:

 

Beautiful

 

 

 

 

Postcard from my life: Week 15 or friends and the famous

Had my bezzy mate Chris to stay for a few days this week. It's her birthday soon and as she's a theatre fan I took her to see War Horse and then we got day seats for Flare Path the next day. I've seen both before but was keen to see them again and she loved both of them too which was most important thing.

It was great to spend some rare quality time together - living at other ends of the country doesn't make it easy. Aside from the plays we did some theatre tours, a trip to the National Portrait Gallery (a personal favourite of mine) and lots of general mooching around the shops.

I don't really like shopping with other people but this was fun as I ended up going to loads of shops I don't normally go to as well as some of my favourites. Chris filled her boots buying two scarves, a pair of Birkenstock trainers and a new charm from Links for her charm necklace although the latter was technically a birthday present from her brother.  

Song 22: The short-lived talent

Jeff Buckley was recommended to me as an artist who had influenced Radiohead who are one of my favs. His album Grace has to be one of the most beautiful and made terribly poignant by the fact that he died tragically young. It was his only studio album.

He has such an incredible and varied voice and the album never fails to move me. Every time I listen to it I can't help thinking about what he would have done musically had he lived longer.

This is Lilac Wine which is one of the most beautiful songs in existence, in my humble opinion.

Download 04 Lilac Wine

Songs 24 & 23: My favourite band

I've been pondering this one for some time. Have even put it off a couple of times, mainly because I can't decide. It's my favourite band, Muse, you see and when I start listening to them I'm like a kid in sweetshop trying to choose one favourite.

They are a band I've liked from their early days - although I confess I didn't discover them until their second album and they are the only band I would go and see at Wembley. Boy can they do justice to Wembley.

There last album is probably my least favourite. Bands evolve and sometimes you don't evolve with them but their back catalogue is quite fantastic.

So I've decided to make it a little easier, only a little, and choose two songs: one from early on in there recording career and one from a bit later and package them up together.

First up and song #24 is New Born from Origins of Symmetry. So many of their songs remind me of seeing them live but this one in particular. As soon at the tinkly piano starts the crowd roars and then when it kicks the place explodes with energy. It reminds me of how at their gigs I truly abandon myself to the music.

 

New Born

And song #25 is Sing For Absolution from Absolution which I've always loved for it's haunting melody and chorus. The real joy is singing along at the top of my voice - either in the privacy of my own home or at a gig when no one can really hear how bad I sound.

 

 

Sing For Absolution

 

Song 25: The band Harry Potter got me into

This isn't what you are thinking. A lot of my music discoveries come from films I see (and I see a lot of films) but they also come from hearing actors and other musician's talk about what they are listening to.

Elijah Wood of Lord of the Rings fame (I'm a big LOTR fan) is a music junkie and has lead me to discovering bands like Gogol Bordello and Apples in Stereo. And likewise Daniel Radcliffe (I'm a huge Harry Potter fan) has led to the discovery of the band behind this next song: Beirut.

I'd definitely describe myself as a heart-led person. I never feel so alive as when I've seen a really moving play or film, had some sort of response from it, and much of the music I like elicits an emotional response whether it is joy or sadness or the need to dance wildly or curl in a ball.

I write all this because I'm trying to explain why I like Beirut so much. To many it will seem like a wailing dirge but to me it is the mixture of joy and celebration with an underlying sorrow that is, to me anyway, genius.

I think the band achieve this with the mixture of cultural influences in the sound. The Gulag Orkestar from which Brandenburg is taken has a strong Eastern European folk influence.

Beirut are one of my favourite bands, sadly they seem to have split before I could see them live, and Brandenburg is probably in my all time top five songs. It transports me to another place, not physical but emotional, every time I hear it. Somewhere desolate but hopeful. So thanks Mr Radcliffe for mentioning them in an interview and arousing my curiosity.

 

Download 03 Brandenburg

 

 

Song 26: The one from that holiday

If ever there was a song that takes me back to another country and another time then this has to be it.

We were on holiday in Cuba, it was New Year's Eve and our Cuban guide Marlon had organised a fantastic evening for us. It started with a sunset flag ceremony and dinner over looking the ocean as the last bit of light left the sky.

Then we headed into Santa Clara to a music house where Septeto Sones de Oriente were playing. It was wonderful music and everyone was relaxed and having a great time.

I had to buy a copy of CD and no it wasn't one of those holiday impulse purchases that ends up in the bin. I call it my sunny music. Whenever work is tough or the weather is bad I put this on and I'm immediately transported back to beautiful, sunny Cuba and my lovely trip there.

After the music house we went to the main square where there was more music but things didn't really kick off until after the midnight speeches and then the place came alive. It was like being in a movie, the square was full and everyone was dancing. And no one was dancing alone for long.

Download 02 Arrea Pa Que Ilegues